Friday, September 2, 2011

Crickets / Music
Apparently I like Shia LeBeouf's new Marilyn Manson video

When I read that Shia LeBeouf had directed a Marilyn Manson video I wasn't particularly intrigued. Stunt collaborations are all the rage these days—as evidenced by Jack White's track with the Insane Clown Posse that for a minute came closer to blowing up the entire Internet than most hackers could ever dream—but to me they seem kind of tedious. Initially I wasn't going to check out LeBeouf's video for Manson's "Born Villain" because Shia LeBeouf is a shit actor and from what I can tell he seems like sort of a shitty person too. Plus that Kid Cudi video he did was awful. But then I watched it anyhow. I'm super glad that I did.

I haven't listened to Jack White and ICP's "Lick My Ass" (or whatever it's called in German) for the obvious reasons, so I can only assume that it's pretentious garbage (in the very Jack White-y way where there's always gotta be an Important Meaning). On the other hand I can absolutely guarantee that "Born Villain" is pretentious garbage, and it's fantastic.

The "short film" (sure) begins with a nonmusical sequence steeped in the visuals of 60s psychedelic occultism, with Marilyn Manson giving two older ladies a scary haircut—it's actually really cool and right up my alley. Then the song begins and shit gets ridiculous. People pose and interact in ways that seem engineered to look really symbol-laden and meaningful, but which I very strongly suspect only symbolize "shit that Shia LeBeouf thinks looks cool." Marilyn Manson is a scary priest/doctor and there are sexy naked ladies all over the place. Every once in a while the music video stops so that someone can read a passage from Shakespeare to the camera. SPOILER ALERT: Also, Marilyn Manson inserts an artificial eye into a lady's vagina.

I'd have to watch it again before I could be sure (something I'm not quite raring to do yet) but no joke I think LeBeouf just might have what it takes to be a great B-movie filmmaker. This thing is so big and overwrought and blind to its own ridiculousness that it does what all great exploitation movies do, which is to go past being so bad that it's good to become something so bad that it's art.

Manson and LeBeouf also made a book together because obviously this thing deserves its own book.

Earle Johnson isn't just selling the bar he's run for nearly four decades—he also wants to make something of the archive of artwork and music by Quenchers regular Wesley Willis that he accumulated over the years.